Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Tuesday is Day Three of the 29th International Racquetball Federation (IRF) World Junior Racquetball Championships in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Lifetime Fitness Target Center, so the group stage will conclude today, and the playoff rounds begin tomorrow.

Guatemalan Gabriela Martinez has claimed the #1 seed in U18 Girl's Singles, as she won all her matches in Group A, completing the group stage by defeating American Jordan Cooperrider, 15-10, 15-9. Monserrat Mejia of Mexico will be the 2nd seed, as she won Group B.

American Hollie Scott won Group C in U18 Girl's Singles by defeating Canadian Alexis Iwaasa, 15-12, 15-7, in a match that featured great serving by both players. Iwaasa hit aces with drive serves to the left side - Scott's backhand, but Scott had ace serves to both the left and right, as well as aces with Z serves to the left and right. That greater range was indicative of the difference between the players.

Mexican Gerardo Franco will be the top seed in Boy's U18 will be the #1 seed, but he needed to win a tie-breaker against Canadian Trevor Webb to do it, winning 12-15, 15-2, 11-4. Webb took an early lead in game one of that match at 6-0, but Franco caught up at 8-8 and went ahead 11-8. But Webb responded by winning seven of the next eight points to take game one, 15-12.

But game two was all Franco, as he won it going away, 15-2. It seemed the match had slipped away from Webb, but in the breaker he took the early lead at 3-1. But Franco stepped up his game, and won 10 of the next 11 points to win the game and match.

An unusual result in doubles, as the top seeds Gerardo Franco and Eduardo Portillo of Mexico dropped their match against Geovani Mendoza and Jose Salvatierra of Guatemala by forfeit. We're not sure why the forfeit occurred, as both Franco and Portillo played their respective singles matches. The loss means Mexico won't be #1 seeds in the playoff round.

Finally, shout out to Bolivians Rodrigo Mendoza and Bryan Zambrana and Hondurans Sergio Ortega and Marco Sarmiento in Boys U18 Doubles, who played the last match of the day. Of course, it went tie-breaker, as the Bolivians came back from a game down to defeat the Hondurans, 3-15, 15-8, 11-4.

The IRF World Juniors competition has two parts, like the World Cup of football/soccer. The first has three days of group play, and the results of that are used to create a playoff draw to determine the year's World Junior Champions. The group stage concludes Tuesday. The playoff stage will begin Wednesday.